Prayer Warriors! While more than 150 of you were out loving Shelbyville, Marian, Randy, and Kristen were in a battle for you! I was on "security" detail yesterday sitting in the front lobby as people came and went. An hour after you left they came out of the prayer room and Marian said, "We're taking a 5 minute break. We've just finished praying for our partners and the groups and we're going back to attack the submitted prayer requests." WOW! That's storming the gates of hell with a water pistol - and I'm here for it! Prayer has always been and will always be, our most powerful weapon.
More than 150 of you out in the community digging ditches to Jesus! We talked about being planted by an "irrigation channel" like we read about in Psalm 1 before we went out to join Jesus in digging some of those channels that might lead to life in Christ for others. Yesterday, y'all built sidewalks, hung gates, painted fences, prayed, packed boxes, laid floor, prepped food, and more - all in the name of Jesus. Amen!
Our greatest memories will come from moments where God uses us. I got to spend some time with Randy yesterday who has been a part of CCC since 10/10/10 - Day 1! I asked him what his favorite memory of Christ Community was, and his answer was profound. After he thought for a moment, he said, "It was when COVID started. I picked up my phone and I started calling everyone and checking on them. I loved calling people on the phone." Profound! It made me realize our greatest memories often come from the moments where God uses us to serve and love others.
I'll never sing "Build my Life" without hearing a train whistle again. Pat Barret's song Build my Life is a great song on it's own! But as we sang it last night at Stargazer Plaza in downtown Shelbyville the train came through and the whistle blew. Here's what's cool. I'm a Purdue BOILERMAKERS fan. We do trains. In fact, every time a touchdown happens in a Purdue football game happens, a train whistle blows to celebrate. So as we sang words like "I will build my life upon your love it is a firm foundation" it was like celebrating a touchdown! Yes, Lord, you are building a firm foundation in our lives! TOOT TOOT!
I've had 4 people mention getting the next generation on mission trips recently. That's exciting! And important! Katie and the missions leadership team are finalizing an incredible slate of mission trips for 2024, and we can't wait to help get you and your family out on mission! So, ask for mission trip funds for Christmas, stay tuned, and let's join Jesus in going out to share the gospel here, there, and everywhere.
Snapshots & Shovels. I've loved our time together in Philippians! Over the next couple weeks, we've got a couple of stand alone sermons (Read John 21 for this weekend!). October 15, we'll start our next series in the book of Luke (Chapters 10-11) called Snapshots & Shovels. It's all about God breaking new ground in people's hearts - both ours and those we share with. Chapter 10 gives us some snapshots of what this can look like while chapter 11 helps us dig into our own lives as God breaks new ground in and through us.
Pray for a few of us guys who are at TGC this week! Jake Heil rallied a few of us to travel to Indy, be challenged by some great preachers, and prayerfully bring back some gospel encouragement to the CCC fam! Pray for us and our families if you think about it!
Love y'all. See you soon.
Blake
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